Mammory Tumors?

Just realized that one of my mice has a small tumor behind her left front arm, in the same place that my mouse who recently passed had one. Assuming they're from the same litter(got all three together from PetSmart, the store got the three of them in together as babies), can I assume this is the result of MMTV? I guess it's likely my third mouse will develop this as well.

Since this is genetic, is it possible to breed it out? Are there lines of mice in which this is less common?

I just had to put down a mom and two of her girls because of this. I got the mouse from a woman who didn't want it no more, she purchased the mouse from pet smart. A couple weeks later she had a surprise litter. The one girl got one a week or so later. I have two females left from her litter and so far they seen ok. And none of the boys so far have anything.

I personally would spoil her until you put her down and just keep a eye on the other. And if you can get a mouse from a breeder that would be your best bet not to have this happen, altho it still can.

Wow, I didn't think they could get tumors so young... Mine are I'd guess around 16 or 17 months old... Ugh.

That is not an abnormal lifespan for a petstore mouse I am afraid. I am very sorry for you.

Indeed, not an unusual lifespan for a petshop mouse at all, except that she's lived so long. You've done a great job caring for her, and so long as the tumor's not in her way (preventing her from getting around), she'll likely live with it a good while. Mammary tumors may or may not spread; I had a rat with tumors considered inoperable because of her advanced age who lived another seven months with lumps bigger than her head under each arm.

La La Lola wrote:Wow, I didn't think they could get tumors so young... Mine are I'd guess around 16 or 17 months old... Ugh.

The mom mouse was around 14 months, and her daughter was like 13 months when we put them down.

With my first litter, the mouse was from a hole in the wall pet store (we didn't know it at the time) she had a littler shortly after too. One of her boys had a lump that went away. He's now 15 months and fine as can be.

LittleSniffs wrote:The mom mouse was around 14 months, and her daughter was like 13 months when we put them down.

With my first litter, the mouse was from a hole in the wall pet store (we didn't know it at the time) she had a littler shortly after too. One of her boys had a lump that went away. He's now 15 months and fine as can be.

Ah. My mouse who passed was around 12 months when we noticed her tumor, she lived about 2 1/2 months longer until we had to help her to sleep... That was back in September. This isn't as common in male mice, correct?

Now, the mouse that this thread is about with the small tumor is of course still completely oblivious to it... She's running around her cage at the moment and going to town ripping up a new cardboard box I put in there yesterday.

However, in the past few days my other mouse has come down sick, she seems to be having problems breathing. Her breathing is visible, taking deeper and quicker breaths it looks like... Nothing else seems to be amiss, aside from her being very tired. I've just this morning set her up on my living room table in the carrying cage I have with some Carefresh and her fuzzy bed she likes to sleep in and one of my sweaters wrapped around the cage. She hasn't been doing much but sleeping in her bed for the past day or two, and I figure I should give her a nice private, quiet place to be next to me, don't want her roommate being rough with her... This came out of nowhere...

It has not been a good week for me and my mice.

candycorn wrote:That is not an abnormal lifespan for a petstore mouse I am afraid. I am very sorry for you.

Laigaie wrote:Indeed, not an unusual lifespan for a petshop mouse at all, except that she's lived so long. You've done a great job caring for her

Thank you, both of you. I knew this would be coming soon... My boyfriend has said the same thing...

Sorry to say my girl Grizelda who seemed sick the past two or so days died in my hands this afternoon, about two hours after my last post... At least she wasn't sick for very long... We're going to go bury her on the hill next to her sister Lola tomorrow morning. Now my girl May with the tumor is all by herself... She's a little nuts, though, she entertains herself, she'll be fine... Didn't see this coming a few days ago...

Awww so sorry to hear she past away :-( Was she sneezing or anything other then the breathing issue's?

Nope, never heard any sneezing... I held her right to my ear to see if I could hear her making any faint sounds, but couldn't hear anything at all. You could just see she was visibly taking deep rapid breaths. She seemed completely normal just last week... I don't know what the final cause was, maybe some sort of heart attack or stroke from her not being able to get enough oxygen... I don't know...

Sometimes the pressure of a tumor can close the air passage.

Thing is, it wasn't the mouse with the tumor. The mouse with the tumor is fine, she's crawling in my sleeve right now... It was the other mouse, who I thought was fine.

La La Lola wrote:Nope, never heard any sneezing... I held her right to my ear to see if I could hear her making any faint sounds, but couldn't hear anything at all. You could just see she was visibly taking deep rapid breaths. She seemed completely normal just last week... I don't know what the final cause was, maybe some sort of heart attack or stroke from her not being able to get enough oxygen... I don't know...

I had a mouse (the one I use for my profile picture, from Mrs Beach) who we think had a stroke, she was unable to move one whole side of her :-( I know with heart attacks in people they have a hard time breathing, so maybe it was that. Either way so sad :-(

La La Lola wrote:Thing is, it wasn't the mouse with the tumor. The mouse with the tumor is fine, she's crawling in my sleeve right now... It was the other mouse, who I thought was fine.

!!!!!!!! Mice are such small, delicate creatures. You never know.

Afterthought: An internal tumor that caused Grizelda's death.

Mrs. Beach wrote:Afterthought: An internal tumor that caused Grizelda's death.

I never thought of that. It's a possibility, if two of the three came down with tumors, there's a good chance that three out of the three did... I did feel her sides when she was sick to see if I could feel anything abnormal. She had dark fur, and she was a little overweight, so I figured there might be something there that I just hadn't noticed, but nothing as far as I could tell. Guess it's impossible to know without a proper doctor examination... I'm just glad she didn't seem to be feeling bad for more than two days about.

Her box in her place on the hill next to her sister...